Mathew
Tombers is the President of Intermat,
Inc., a consulting practice that specializes in the intersection
of media, technology and marketing. For two years, he produced
the Emmys on the Web and supervised web related activities for
the Academy, including for the 50th Anniversary year of the
Emmy Awards. In addition to its consulting engagements, Intermat
recently sold METEORS TALE, an unpublished novel by Michael
ORourke, to Animal Planet for development as a television
movie. Visit his
web site at http://www.intermat.tv

Beginning a new year

One of the wonderful things about being up in the country
is that, at some point, one has to go back to New York City.
Tomorrow is that day for me. I havent been in the city
in two weeks and, honestly, I miss it. It will be good to
go back, go to some meetings, keep getting my new office organized,
see how things are stacking up for the New Year.

All day I have been putting piles on the couch for me to put
into my briefcase, reading and work for the train.

I will only be there for the day tomorrow. Im going
down for the closing on the condo were buying in Battery
Park City, to have a meeting with Jack Myers and David Fox,
to pick up mail and then to meet up with Tripp and return
on the evening train.

But its time to step back from this magical respite
I have been in here in the country and slide back into the
world of work and to embrace a year that I have high hopes
for  much more so than I did for 2002, which turned
out to be a very good year in some ways.

This year began brilliantly with a New Years Eve dinner
at our friends home. Larry and Alicia are restoring
a magnificent 1680 farmhouse overlooking the Hudson River
and invited us for a small get together which turned out to
be a feast of a dinner, steaks, lobster, salmon, potatoes,
yams, broccoli  a feast from which I am still full,
two days later.

Larrys son Bill was there and his friend, Tonia. Also
there was Whitney and his wife, Irene, along with their two
children. Whitney and Larry and I all once worked together.

It had been nearly a dozen years since I had seen Irene and
the children. In that time the baby had become a young man
and the little girl a burgeoning woman; Irene had changed
little, if at all.

We grilled the steaks, boiled the lobsters, grilled the salmon,
sipped French champagne and ate in a room that sang its origins
through the candlelight. It was a room filled with laughter,
everyone enjoying both the food and the company. Whitney laid
out a great selection of wines. [Much of what I know of wines
I learned when working for him in the 80s.]

And then the party continued on, people streaming from room
to room, with laughter the background music. Alicia sat at
one end of the table, caught in the firelight from her antique
candelabra gifts, sipping champagne and leading the laughter.

We stayed very late or very early. I havent done that
for a very long time  and thats a testament to
the enjoyment that was filling the night. Outside the snow
sparkled with the stars and I basked in being in that place,
with people I enjoyed and loved, laughing and being magically
free of the bonds of time for a few hours as one year slipped
into another.

Now I begin 2003. We all begin 2003. People are drifting back
to work, rummaging through piles left behind in another year,
picking up the threads of this one.

Tonight, sitting by my fire, getting ready to go back to the
fray, I am happy. I hope that you, too, are happy as you begin
this year.